The renovation of 1444 Michigan Ave. is moving forward in earnest, helping activate another storefront in Corktown.

The century-old storefront near the corner of Michigan and Trumbull avenues has been undergoing a slow renovation in recent years as its owner, Anthony O'Donnell, used his own resources to put on a new roof and make other structural improvements. He has now secured a six-figure loan from the Detroit Development Fund along with some other state and national tax credits, allowing him to completely rehab the structure.

O'Donnell lives on the second floor and small set-back third floor of the building. He plans to turn the ground floor into a eatery and is in talks with a local microbrewer, Batch Brewing Co, to open up a nano-brewery in the ground floor.

"We have been talking about that for a few months now," O'Donnell says.

The plan is to complete the facade restoration of the building before the end of the year and white-box the first-floor commercial space by mid-2013. O'Donnell plans to renovate the entire building and the garage behind it, which comes to about 14,000 square feet of space.